Ladders are commonly used to access raised work platforms associated with scaffolding systems. Generally, once the ladder exceeds a certain height from the ground, a safety structure must be provided about the ladder to provide protection for a user and to act as a safety cage behind a user such that he cannot fall rearwardly off the ladder without being restricted by the safety cage.
Scaffolding systems have designed a number of approaches for providing a safety structure to one side of the ladder to protect the worker. On many construction sites, workers fabricate an enclosed structure by means of a series of vertical elements extending in a parallel manner to the ladder with a series of horizontal components attached to the scaffolding and the vertical elements. In this way, it is possible for the worker to use the verticals and horizontals of the scaffolding system to fabricate a safety structure to one side of the ladder. These structures are certainly satisfactory in providing the required safety structure to one side of the ladder, however, they are costly to assemble and in many cases, are over designed. With scaffolding systems, there is a substantial cost to initially assemble the system and a lower cost associated with taking the system down. Therefore, there is a high cost component in assembling onsite fabricated ladder cages as they are all done by hand and have a substantial labour component. In designing these systems, care is required to make sure the system components are easy to install and are of a weight which is easily carried by a worker. Obviously, the assembly of these safety structures can be at a substantial height and could expose the worker to a substantial risk.
The present invention provides an effective structure and method for assembling a safety cage to one side of a scaffold ladder.